Late at Night
by Jadepiper
Summary: Set right before the four young mages go off on their own adventures, a young girl with problems and powers comes to stay at Discipline. Slightly AU.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: If you don't recognize it, it's probably mine. If you do, it's Tammy's.

Chapter One

Cassie lay on the roof of the girl's dormitory at Winding Circle, staring at the stars that lay just out of her reach. They were so beautiful, pinpoints of light in the black sky. Just in the distance, she saw a pale shadow winging its way towards her. She sat up, and held her arm out just as the tiny elf owl landed. Barely the size of her hand, Nuktia's buff-colored feathers were dark-streaked. The owl made a content _huur_, telling Cassie that she had fed well that night on insects and one tasty lizard. Nuktia hopped up Cassie's arm, to her shoulder, where she snuggled inside the girl's shoulder-length, thick black hair. Cassie sighed, totally relaxed. She enjoyed one of the few times of peace since she had come from the farm.

"Cassiopeia, is that you up there?" a voice called. A light reached up to illuminate her. Cassie groaned as she saw Dedicate Staghorn below. "Get down from there immediately." Cassie turned away from the dedicate, making like she was ready to slide down as she knew any other girl would do. In reality, she was letting Nuktia off her shoulder and whispering that she had to go, and that Nuktia should fly away and enjoy the night, as Cassie herself could not. She slid down the roof, knowing that the dedicate would freak if she ran down it in her usual fashion, and landed lightly on the ground. The dedicate grabbed her by her upper arm and marched her into the dormitory.

She was woken at dawn by the same dedicate shaking her shoulder. "Pack," the woman curtly ordered. Cassie did, sighing. She was cast away again, as usual. She was going to be sent to some other place, with a new set of rules. Why they couldn't just let her off in some forest with nice big trees and plenty of birds, she didn't know. She finished packing her few belongings with the dedicate watching over her the entire time, and followed her to Winding Circle's administration building. The dedicate muttered the entire way.

"First there was that girl Trisana, who was unmanageable and now you. Why is it always me that gets stuck with the hard ones. I've hardly had a good night sleep since you arrived. Now sit," she said, nearly throwing Cassie onto to one of the benches. Dedicate Staghorn stormed into the office. "Honored Moonstream, I've had enough!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Moonstream, Dedicate Superior of Winding Circle, looked at the girl brought in front of her. Cassiopeia Danoite was an orphan, as far as anyone knew. The girl herself would not say. She had been brought to the temple community by a woodcutter who had found her roaming in the forest. That was the name she gave him, but no matter how far Moonstream searched, she could not find references to a Danoite anywhere. The closest that she found was the translation of the name, "of the night" it meant, in an ancient unused dialect. And it seemed to fit the girl. Dedicate Staghorn had told her how the girl kept on running off at night and climbing to the roof-tops. Moonstream was surprised that such a slight, quiet, innocent-looking girl could give off so much trouble. Though her reputed age was twelve, she looked more like she was ten, and a scrawny ten at that. But she didn't act like she was ten or twelve. She had no wishes to play or to socialize with the other girls her age, and she showed almost no emotion. Her strange deep silver eyes met Moonstream's squarely, half-hidden though they were by the black hair barely touching her shoulder blades. Moonstream sighed. She wished Niko was here, and not in Summersea with Sandry, visiting Duke Vedris. He would not be back for at least three days, as he was helping the Duke recover from his terrible heart attack. If it was an emergency, he could be called back. She made a decision. It could always be reversed, but she thought she had the right idea. She called Dedicate Staghorn back into her office.

"Take her to Discipline," she said, naming a cottage by the north gate. Dedicate Staghorn bowed and led the girl away.

They cut through the paths instead of taking the long, spiral roads. Cassie was under the impression that the dedicate wanted to be rid of her as fast as possible, hurrying them along. She spent the time wondering what Discipline was. A punishment was what it sounded like. Maybe a place where they enforced the rules more heavily. Whatever it was, she hoped that it would be better than it was at the dorms. Maybe the people would be easier to get along with, and leave her alone. That was all she wanted, to be left alone. They stopped in front of a small cottage with whitewashed stone walls and a thatched roof. Two smaller buildings rested on either side.

A door opened and a woman stepped out. "To what do I owe this visit to?" she asked congenially.

"This is Cassiopeia. Moonstream sent her here." Dedicate Staghorn dropped the bundle she was carrying and left, hurrying away.

"Welcome to Discipline, Cassiopeia. My name is Lark," the woman said, motioning her into the door.

"It's Cassie," Cassie answered, and stepped inside.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for the reviews, Zerrin of the Wind! You are my sole reviewer so far. You're awesome.

Chapter Three

Two girls and a boy looked up at her from the long table inside Discipline cottage. One of the girls was dark-skinned and dark-haired, and she was tall and looked strong. She was also wearing trousers! Cassie yearned for the freedom that breeches meant to her, and hoped that just maybe, they would allow her to wear breeches too. The other two were much more of what she expected. The other girl was short and plump, and wore a comfortable blue cotton dress. Her wild red hair was straining out of its two French braids, and copper-colored spectacles perched on her nose, staring at the book that was in her hands, and completely ignoring the half empty bowl of porridge sitting on the table in front of her. The book fascinated Cassie, as she had never learned to read, but had always wanted to learn how. The stories in them seemed so interesting, with what little she had heard, and they represented a source of information, which Cassie loved, adored, and needed with all her soul. The boy was at the other end of the table from the girls and he was carefully snipping off the tips of a miniature tree. He looked totally engrossed in his work, barely sparing a glance at her as Lark led her in. He looked like any other boy she had seen, tall and skinny, with cropped black hair and a thin-bladed nose. But no other boy she had seen would be caught dead paying attention to a plant.

"Briar, where's Rosethorn?" Lark addressed the boy.

He looked up. "She left a few minutes ago. I dunno where exactly. I think she went over to Crane's. She said she'll be back soon. Who's that?" He asked, motioning towards Cassie. The two girls looked up.

"This is Cassie." Lark said. "She'll be joining us for a little while at least. Cassie, this is Briar, Daja, and Tris." She pointed to each of them in turn as she said her name. "Daja, could you ask-"

"Ahead of you there, Lark. Sandry said it was fine, go ahead. She also said nice to meet you, in a sense." The last remark the black girl made was directed to Cassie, who was a little confused. _Who was Sandry, and how could Daja know what she said?_ Cassie filed that thought away in her mind to think about later.

"Well that settles it then. Sandry's away, but it's okay for you to have her room, she says. When she's back, well, we'll deal with that later. Is that all you brought with you?" At Cassie's affirmative nod, Lark continued, "Okay then, how about I show you the room now and you can get to know everyone later?" Cassie nodded again, and followed Lark into the room.

The room spoke of ownership by someone else, someone with a lot of clothes who did a lot of embroideries. Embroideries hung everywhere, all beautifully done, but Cassie hoped that no one would expect her to do any needlework. The sole person who had tried to make her learn it, gave it up as a lost cause in a matter of days. What there was of it, when she forced Cassie to do it, was positively atrocious. Cassie placed her two bundles on the floor, sighed at the thought of having to deal with so many new strangers, and exited the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: What you recognize doesn't belong to me. What you don't recognize, probably does, or maybe you should read Tammy's books more.

Zerrin of the Wind, thank you for your third review. You currently hold the status of my sole reviewer. Out of the current 81 hits, you'd think that more people could go through the trouble of reviewing, even if people don't like it and think of a way I should do something better. I may not listen to them, but I'd certainly appreciate it. sighs 

To anyone who did not get the point in my earlier paragraph, PLEASE REVIEW!

Chapter Four

Cassie stood quietly in the doorway of her borrowed room for what seemed like hours, but in reality was more like a few minutes. She wasn't quite sure of what to do or how the others would treat her. They seemed to be nice people, but Cassie had learned long ago not to trust seemingly nice people, especially those selfsame people under the eyes of an adult. Often, she had learned, younger people had an entirely different personality of their own than when an adult was looking over their shoulder.

Lark turned around. "Oh Cassie, there you are. You should make a noise or something. Are you hungry? We've just finished breakfast, but I can still get you something, or Briar can run over to Dedicate Gorse like I'm sure he's dying to." Her voice held a lilt to it and her eyes smiled at Cassie. Cassie shook her head. She didn't have breakfast, but she wasn't all that hungry. At least, not hungry enough to put them through any effort on her behalf. She saw that as the quickest way to get even the nice ones to resent her. She learned that a long time ago to.

"Well then, we all do some basic house-keeping chores after breakfast. Do you have much experience cleaning?" At Cassie's shake of the head, she continued. "Then I think I'll have Tris show you around for the meantime." The redhead at the table jumped to the sound of her name.

"What'd I miss?" she asked grumpily.

"You're going to show Cassie around a bit while you do your chores so she kind of gets the feel of things. And Tris-" Lark gave Tris a warning glance that Cassie couldn't quite fathom, but the other girl seemed to understand it perfectly. She took the glance as a sign to get up and the others followed suit. Daja took up Tris's bowl and left for the kitchen, while Briar went outside. Tris jerked her head towards another room and Cassie followed suit.

"I've got dusting and sweeping today. Pretty basic- I've been doing it since I could walk for the most part. The main thing to remember is to get all the corners, and to dust before sweeping. That way you get all the dust on the floor and you just sweep it up with the rest of the dirt." Tris grabbed a cloth and started on a shelf. Cassie watched as she carefully lifted the knickknacks that were already there off and wiped the cloth underneath.

"By the way, I saw that Dedicate Staghorn dumped you here," Tris said. "She must really have a problem hanging on to anyone who isn't her idea of normal. She dumps me here too. Said I was antisocial and crazy. What's your crime?"

"I was out past curfew every night. But I think the part she really minded, was that I was on the roof every time," Cassie said, softly.

"I can see how that would bug her," was the other girl's only comment.

(A/N: I can see how this can be a little OOC for Tris, but hey, she may have become a little more friendly over the years, since this is shortly before she left with Niko. Besides, it's my story and I can do whatever I want with it, and that's the beauty of this whole thing.)


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Cassie's mine. Nuktia's mine. The plot's mine. Everything else belongs to Tamara Pierce, not me.

Thanks to all my reviewers. The chapters just seem to be short, and destined to be that way. I just end them whenever they decide to end themselves. It's like I'm only serving as something to write their stories down, and I can only write what they tell me. Sorry if it bugs you.

Chapter Five

Cassie sat in the window seat of her room, thinking hard. She could not fall asleep. Her mind was just too preoccupied going over the events of the day. She liked Discipline, so far at least, even with all their weirdness and magic stuff. The meditation that they did this evening was eluding her grasp, to say the least, and in the morrow, the mysterious and oft-mentioned Niko would come. This Niko would decide her fate- this she was sure about. Everyone seemed to take it for granted that he would see her and decide. The other kids seemed nice for all that they were at least a year or two older than her, as did the woman called Lark. Rosethorn, who she had met, seemed more like she was ready to bite anyone's nose off and Cassie hoped the next one wouldn't be hers. _They had such funny names here- Staghorn, Moonstream, Rosethorn, Lark. It must be a Temple philosophy- choosing new names when entering a new life. _ Her mind was in such turmoil, taking on this new place that she, finally, accepted temptation and hopped out the window. The night was lonely, and beautiful in its loneliness. It wrapped her in its soft darkness and the stars winked at her like laughing eyes. The soft breeze caressed her skin and her dark clothes fluttered in it. She could never be alone in the night. She couldn't understand for the life of her why some people feared it. _What did they fear? Was it the darkness itself, or the bad things that were reputed to come in it? Was it not being able to see? _She had never met any of the creatures that supposedly used the night to prey on the innocent. Cassie stared at the cottage, hesitating. She was nervous climbing to the roof, nervous that someone would hear her and kick her off, but she was driven by an otherworldly necessity to be higher, higher in to the night.

Cassie planted her bare feet against the side of one of the little side-buildings and climbed, scaling the wall with the ease of one who had done so her entire life. She skipped lightly over the roof, carefully avoiding the windows and staying in the shadows. Years of avoiding people had taught her little tricks, like most people didn't see as well at night and in the shadows. But Cassie could see clearly and easily made her way onto the roof, where she lay out in full relaxation. It was amazing how swiftly her anxious thoughts, fears, and problems disappeared. She felt that, enveloped in the cloak of the night, she was safe, that nothing could harm her, and that nothing could go wrong.

She made a sound, a soft hoo in the midnight air and the caressing breeze carried it far. Soon, overhead, a small winged shape came down and Nuktia rested on her arm. The owl clumsily made her way up Cassie's arm to her shoulder and buried herself in Cassie's hair, all the whole making soft cooing noises. Cassie reached up her other arm and stroked her head and soft breast feathers, relaxing enough to fall asleep on the rooftop in the warm spring breeze.


End file.
